The Return of the Labyrinth
by The Local Outcast
Summary: Decades after the movie, the Faun returns with some terrible news: Queen Moanna is sick and dying. To save her, he recruits a skeptical teenage girl to perform a series of difficult tasks. Can she do them all before it's too late?
1. Chapter 1

**The Return of the Labyrinth**

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**Chapter 1**

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A long, long time ago, Moanna, the princess of the Underworld who had escaped into the world of mortals, was reborn into a little girl named Ofelia. One day, Ofelia and her mother came to a mill close to one of the portals in which the people of the Underworld used to search for her all over the world. There, she had met the Faun. He gave her three tasks to ensure that her essence was intact. Ofelia had successfully completed the first two tasks, but one, she had broken the rules on leaving the Faun infuriated. However, the Faun decided to forgive Ofelia and gave her a second chance and let her complete the final task thus leading to Ofelia's arrival as Ofelia no longer but Princess Moanna herself.

It has been over sixty years since the return of Princess Moanna. The century for the kingdom has been prosperous and promising. However, a kingdom is not without its troubles. The Princess, now Queen, has fallen under an illness that may result in her very death. In a desperate attempt to save her, the kingdom has sent the Faun himself to ascend to the world of mortals to find one worthy enough to take on the challenge in saving her life.

* * *

Amaranta sighed as she stroke her long, brown hair. It had been a long first day at school. She thought that if she had to spend any more time in Senor Iglesias' math class, her head would have surely exploded. Her first day was a lot more smoother than she had thought it would be. As expected, everyone ignored her considering she was the new girl (during classes and lunch), so she didn't make many friends. Plus, she was rammed into the lockers as people came rushing through the hallways; yup, another day in the bittersweet life of Amaranta Vazquez.

As she was walking home from school on a blistering sunny day, she saw an old, yellow school bus full of noisy primary school children departing from its stop. At the stop, were a few primary school kids making some kind of ruckus over something? She walked by to take a closer look. There were two boy, one a bit portly and the other skinny, picking on a small boy around their age; one that Amaranta knew too well. Her face changed from emotionless to a scowl as she came within two feet from the boys.

"Hey, brats," said Amaranta raising her voice "You think that's funny? Picking on someone who has a better life than you?"

"What do _you_ want?" asked the skinny boy

"Whaddya think I want?" snapped Amaranta "I want you to get your asses away from my kid brother here."

"You're not the boss of us," said the portly boy sharply "So scram, ya little tramp."

Irritated, Amaranta grabbed both boys by the back of their shirts. Both of them tried to struggle out of her grasp shouting out comments that wouldn't be suited for young children to say, but to no avail.

"You better watch what you say to me, you little turds," she said cruelly "Unless you want to find yourself limping all the way home."

She found an old little park bench near by. An idea had been formed in her mind; one that had been using for many, many years. She grinned mischievously; this was definitely going to be fun. As the bullies continued to struggle, she dragged the two bullies to that bench and shoved them into it.

"Sit down." She barked

They glance at each other then hesitantly sat down. Amaranta kneeled down on the concrete sidewalk while her little brother stood behind her.

"How old are you boys?" asked Amaranta "Two? Three?"

"Seven." muttered the portly boy

"Hmm. That just so happened to be my tenth guess." she said

Amaranta's little brother giggled.

"Now, let me tell you a little story," began Amaranta "One that just so happens to be true by the way. Many years ago, in this very city, there was once a beautiful woman who was loved by even the most black hearted of men. Men have tried to bring her flowers, gold, jewels and fine fabric but none of these seemed to have won her over. What did seem to satisfy her interest though, were children; bratty, rude children. What she would do with them no one dared to find out except, one very nosy man. One day, he followed her into an abandon mine but he got lost while trying to follow her. Trying to find his way out, he stumbled across a massive cave with a lake in it. What he saw was horrifying: he saw the woman in the form of a half scorpion, half human beast devouring a young child. When he saw this he immediately ran. He barely made it out alive though. When he went back to the village, he was missing a leg, an arm and an eye. Some say that the beast is still in the mines, sending out men who are so in love with her to do her bidding. Others say that she uses black magic to sneak into misbehaving children's rooms and drag them back to her entombed lair. In fact, this very street is named after her."

Amaranta pointed to a near by street sign that said "_Sirena St._"

"That was her name," she said "Sirena."

"How are we supposed to believe you?" asked the skinny boy

"Well," said Amaranta "You see that tree over there?"

"What tree?"

"That tree, retard."

She gestured over to a medium-sized mahogany tree that had large claw marks imbedded in it.

"Those are her claws," said Amaranta grimly "She's been here. So if I were you I would back off and high tail it out of here before I get my head bitten off."

The two boys looked at each other horrified and then made a run for it. Amaranta laughed at them as they ran off. Those little buttheads; they fell for it. Those weren't really the claw marks of the so-called Sirena; they were really the scratches of a wolf she saw last night trying to catch a squirrel that fled into a tree. Her little brother suddenly wrapped his arms around her stomach and squeezed suffocating her.

"Augh… alright, Lucio…" she gagged "Let… go. You're… choking… me."

Lucio giggled.

"There really isn't a Sirena is there?" he asked

"Only in Boogie Land!" teased Amaranta

Both of them laughed and started to walk home together.

"Hey, Ama, when's Papa coming home?" asked Lucio suddenly

"I don't know Lucio," replied Amaranta "Very soon, I hope."

But hardly did they know that hidden within the shadows was a dragonfly-like insect unlike anything this world has ever seen was watching them.


	2. Chapter 2

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**Chapter 2**

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"So, how was school today." asked Mrs. Vasquez

"Uh, good." replied Amaranta who was washing the dishes

"Yeah." added Lucio

"Make any new friends?"

"Not really." said Amaranta

"I almost got beat up today." Lucio chimed in

Mrs. Vasquez's face looked horrified.

"You did?"

"Yeah."

She went up and placed her shoulders on Lucio.

"Who was it, honey?"

"I don't know, just some two kids in my class. It was at the bus stop after school. But Ama came and saved me."

Amaranta just shrugged modestly.

"Amaranta." said Mrs. Vasquez raising her voice

"I didn't beat them," said Amaranta "Just told them a little story and scared them off."

"Why did you do that though?"

"Hey, someone has to protect the little squirt. He makes enemies faster than I do."

As Amaranta chuckled to this, Lucio came up and secretly stepped on her toe. She slightly yelped but their mother didn't seem to notice. Amaranta gave Lucio an intentionally humorous angry face that made him giggle. Their mother sighed and decided to clean up the end of the large, white table the three of them sat at when they ate almost everyday. As usual, it was covered with things like magazines and newspapers that seemed to be scattered around carelessly. She began to pick them up one by one.

"She's right though," said Lucio "After all, love is the thing that can save us all. That's what the faun told me."

"The faun?" asked Mrs. Vasquez

"Yeah, the faun that lives in the labyrinth in our backyard. I told you about him remember? Ama, you should meet him sometime. He's really nice."

Oh, great, not the faun story again. For the past few days, Lucio had been going on about how there's a labyrinth in the backyard and that there's a faun living in it with his pet fairies. Although Amaranta would have wanted to believe him, she really couldn't. She knew that fauns didn't exist. Sure she told stories about them, but that didn't mean that she _had_ to believe in them. She was too old to believe in such stories.

"Lucio, go take a shower and get your PJ's on." said Mrs. Vasquez changing the subject

"Okay." said Lucio running upstairs

When Lucio was gone, the room was very silent for a moment (that is, if you want to count the faucet being on and the clattering sound of dishes being placed on top of one another).

"Lucio asked when Papa was coming home again." said Amaranta

Mrs. Vasquez stopped picking up the papers for a moment.

"Did he now."

"Yeah."

"What did you tell him?"

"The usual; I don't know."

"Good."

Another moment of silence fell upon them.

"How much longer do I have to keep lying to him?" asked Amaranta

"Amaranta…"

"Why can't we just tell him that Papa isn't really in Iraq?"

"Amaranta, you know what would happen if we told him that."

"I know, it's just… I hate having to lie to him all the time."

Mrs. Vasquez put her arms around her, her curly black hair drooping down the side of Amaranta's arms.

"Sometimes, the truth is better left unsaid." her mother told her

"But the truth can set you free." said Amaranta quietly

"That's only a saying," said Mrs. Vasquez "It doesn't mean it's true."

* * *

That night, when everyone was asleep, Amaranta could've sworn she heard footsteps downstairs. She drowsily lifted her face from her pillow and turned to her digital alarm clock. In bright green letters it said 2:03 AM. She then turned to Lucio's bed only to find that he wasn't in bed. What could he be doing this early? Probably getting a midnight snack, she presumed. She let her head collapse onto her pillow once more.

Suddenly, she heard the door to the backyard creak slowly. She lifted her head once more. Was someone in the house? She jumped out of bed and went to the window hoping that Lucio didn't go outside. Outside, she could see the trees dancing from the harsh wind that was blowing against them. She looked at the ground and noticed that Lucio was talking to a small, floating, shadowy figure.

"What the hell is he doing?" Amaranta asked herself

Lucio and the figure dashed off passed the gate in the backyard. Amaranta quickly threw on a grey sweatshirt, grabbed a flashlight from underneath her pillow, went downstairs, slipped some sneakers on and went out into the backyard. The wind was a lot stronger than it was from the inside of the house. Amaranta thought she was going to be blown away. She saw that the gate that led into the woods was wide open. She walked through it shutting the gate behind her. She then sighed and braced herself as she entered the woods. Damn, she was in for a wild night.

"Lucio?" called Amaranta

Only the wind replied.

"Lucio?"

As she walked on the path through the dark forest, she repeatedly called out Lucio's name. She felt the darkness creeping around her. She felt that something in the forest was trying to follow her. Suddenly, she heard a noise in the bushes. She pointed her light at it but there was nothing. She then heard another noise across from the bush she was facing. She quickly turned around and saw a small shadow swiftly fly by her flashlight into another bush.

"Hey!" she barked "I saw you! Show yourself!"

With her flashlight, she saw some of the leaves move. Out of the shrub came something that would change Amaranta's life forever. It was a fairy; a small, winged fairy. It had a tiny blue body with green wings that resembled closely to leaves. Amaranta was unsure of what to do or say, she was so shocked. Had she gone crazy? Was this some kind of a weird dream?

The fairy flew towards her and stopped in front of her face causing Amaranta to take a step backwards, surprised. It began to make a series of hand gestures. It looked like it was trying to tell her something. All of the sudden, another fairy accidentally crashed into the blue fairy. This fairy had a red body and yellow wings that also looked like leaves.

The blue fairy started scolding the red fairy as it tried to defend itself. Amaranta couldn't understand a single word they were saying. All she could hear were small squeaks and clicks. They were bickering over something; probably about the way the red fairy crashed into the blue fairy. Amaranta felt baffled. What, oh what, in God's name was going on?

"Uh… hey," she blurted "You… you wouldn't have happened to see my brother, would you?"

The two fairies stopped and looked at Amaranta. They then flew away from her and down the trail.

"Hey!" cried Amaranta "Wait!"

She chased after the fairies in hot pursuit. She chased them left, right and around the forest. By the time she came into the middle of the forest, she didn't have a clue where she was. She then slipped and fell flat on her face onto the gravel-paved road. She lifted her face and sighed.

"Well, my little brother has been kidnapped by fairies," she muttered sourly "Brilliant. What else can go wrong?"

She then leapt onto her feet and continued the chase. She followed them to an arch of some sort made of earth that had a strange design of a face of a being with horns embedded in it. Behind it was a pathway with ten foot walls made of earth around it. Amaranta paused to look at it for minute. Oh God… was this hell? No, if this was hell, a voice in her head would be telling her to kill people.

"I just had to ask." Amaranta murmured

The two fairies she was chasing appeared in front of her face, surprising her. The blue one motioned her to come forward and then took off with the red fairy towards the pathway. She hesitantly followed them in. Once again, she was led by the fairies in many different directions: up, down, left and right. As she continued on, she began to realize that this place, this road, it wasn't a regular one; it was a labyrinth.

Eventually, in the middle of this labyrinth, they came across a deep pit in the ground. The fairies dove head first into it leaving Amaranta alone. She directed the flashlight inside but all there was, was a large statue of some sort. There was also a spiral stone staircase which exactly look "safe". She didn't exactly know what to do next. Should she really go down into that hole? Or should she just stay where she was?

"Lucio," she called "Are you there?"

There was no reply.

"Lucio?"

She then decided to climb down the staircase.

"Okay, Lucio, I believe you."

As soon as she came down the stairs, she shined her flashlight around hoping to find her brother.

"This isn't funny anymore, Lucio. Come on out."

"Ama!"

Amaranta almost screamed, she was so frightened. She saw Lucio in a red and black windbreaker jacket, white and blue sheep pajama bottoms and blue rubber rain boots. What he was wearing was much warmer compared to her clothing which was just a grey sweatshirt, knee-high boxers and some plain white sneakers but that wasn't the point. The point was that she had finally found him.

"There you are!" she exclaimed "I've been looking all over for you! Do you have any idea how worried sick I was?"

"The faun said that you would come." beamed an excited Lucio

"Alright, who's this faun guy? Huh? I know the fairies are real, but what about the faun?"

"That would be me." said a mysterious voice

A figure stepped forth from the shadows and revealed himself. He was a tall, blue-ish grey almost wood-like figure with red-ish brown hair, white horns similar to a ram's horns and literally long goat legs. He had eerie blue eyes that were so bright one would accidentally mistaken him to be blind. Amaranta was once again dumbfounded. What had she gotten herself into?


End file.
